Utilisation of Religious Symbols, Performance and Subversion of Local Customs for Social Negotiation and Change in rural South India

Anderson H M Jeremiah

It is well known that in south India, temple rituals are fully entangled in political process. From pre-colonial kingship through colonial rule and continuing today in both rural and urban communities, temple rituals have remained a vital means of asserting control over territories, garnering social constituencies and articulating and contesting relations of rank within communities.1

This important observation made by Diane P. Mines on the central place of religious

life and temple rituals in Tamil Nadu has prompted me to examine carefully the religious

practices among the rural Paraiyar Christians of Thulasigramam in south India. Closer

observation of the lives of Paraiyar Christians reveals that they do not just perceive and

passively consume the Christian religious symbols, spaces, worldviews and rituals with

which they are presented. Rather, they take an active role in interpreting, reshaping, and

utilising them for their own ends. In this process they reflect and even redress the

community’s needs and ambitions within its complex caste dominated and marginalised

social context in which religious affiliation crucially defines their socio-cultural boundaries

and identities. Further, larger discussions of Globalisations and its impact on religious

expansion often overlook such important and interesting facets of local religious encounters.

There are popular perceptions that ‘world religions’, such as Christianity, have some sort of

universal expression irrespective of local and individual contexts. It is taken for granted that

every Christian subscribes to the same views and participates in religious rituals for the same

reason. Often religious affiliations are measured by the number of adherents to a particular

faith and not by local social, economic, or political determinants for such a phenomenon. It is

in this light that the present study attempts to highlight how the Paraiyar Christians contest,

1 Diane P. Mines, Fierce Gods, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005, p29

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subvert, and negotiate the matrix of caste discrimination and religious conflicts by employing

creative strategies through their affiliation with Christianity.2 This research was conducted as

part of my doctoral research during 2007-2008 in Thulasigramam a village 20 km west of

Vellore, in Tamil Nadu, South India. The names of individuals and the village have been

changed to preserve anonymity, and are subsequently mentioned in the paper without any

further explanation.

Thulasigramam is a small agricultural village with a population of about 150

households. Thulasigramam village confirms to traditional demarcations on the caste basis,

i.e, the local high caste occupy the centre of the village and the lower, untouchable caste

communities have to live outside the boundaries of the village, which is visible in its

geographical divisions.3 Basically three different caste communities constitute

Thulasigramam. The centre of the Oor (village) is occupied by the Reddyars, the local high

caste, and dominant land owners of the village. They are Hindus by religious affiliation.

Paraiyars, the outcaste and landless agricultural labour community live in one southern edge

of the village, which is called the colony or Cheri. The majority of Christians belong to the

Paraiyar caste community, and they live along side their Hindu relatives in the Cheri, where

the big concrete church building is located, with a high bell tower surrounded by thatched

roofs. Arunthathier is another outcaste community that predominantly works with leather

products and lives on the western edge of the village. Paraiyars consider Arunthathier as

lower than themselves in the caste hierarchy and avoid interaction with them. The socio-

spatial demography of Thulasigramam clearly defines the caste hierarchy and status of each

community within that hierarchy. This village does exhibit the classic traits of distancing,

domination, subordination and socio economic dependency of the outcastes on the local 2 Paraiyar Christians are one among many ‘outcaste’ Christian communities in India. ‘Dalit’ is the collective term that affirmatively refers to all the formerly ‘untouchable’ communities who were excluded from the Indian caste system. Within Christianity in India, Dalit Christians constitute the majority of its adherents. 3Andre Beteille, Caste, Class and Power, New Delhi: Oxford, 2002, pp19-44

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‘high’ caste. The Paraiyar Christian community consists of 31 households, mostly working

as agricultural daily labourers in the fields’ and farms owned by Reddyars. They totally

depend upon them for work and to earn a living, while some still work as drumbeaters, a

‘traditional’ occupation of Paraiyar. Christian Paraiyars share their domestic space with

their Hindu Paraiyar brothers, sisters and relatives. Having explained the context of this study

this paper will firstly develop a fundamental understanding of symbolic representation within

the anthropological approach to the study of religion. Secondly, it will briefly observe various

aspects of how Paraiyar Christians negotiate their social position through religious

symbolism and subversive social actions.

Understanding Symbolism

Symbols, signs, and rituals are located within a cultural social convention performed

by individuals and communities. Symbols are not merely representations, but carriers of

meaning provided by the observers and the performers, which not only instruct but also

enable the user to make new meanings.4 Symbols are vehicles of interpretation as they are

malleable and can be made to fit particular needs and uses of an individual or community.5

Clifford Geertz suggests that symbols are ‘imprecise’ cognitive constructs, facilitating

‘subjective’ communal expression.6 Symbols also provide space for the community to infuse

meanings in order to serve their specific objectives.7 Culturally, symbols play a significant

role in reinforcing cultural boundaries while reconstituting them since, as Geertz observes,

“symbols are shaped by psychological and social factors, while they in turn also shape

psychological and social reality of the signifier”.8 Material symbols become relevant and

4 Anthony P. Cohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Routledge, 1993, p14 5 Ibid., p18 6 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books, 1973, p19f 7 Ibid., p37 8 Ibid., p127

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alive because of the meanings actively infused and inferred by human cognition.9 Meanings

are ascribed through symbols and gain prominence particularly when contrasted with other

symbols.10

Symbolism is a form of social knowledge and according to Geertz, in the religious

arena symbols assume ‘sacredness’ by mediating ontological and cosmological knowledge

and guiding people to ‘live realistically’.11 As suggested earlier, religion is located within

culture and society and in the communal and individual aspects of human life.12 Geertz

proposes the possibility of religious symbols and rituals assuming socio-political and

metaphysical significance in the light of specific existing contexts.13 Moreover symbols and

rituals within religious spheres represent communal consciousness and provide meaning for

the individual’s existence within the group. Taking it further, Victor Turner opines that

“symbols instigate social action”, since symbols and rituals provide an instructional structure

facilitating social order or ‘Communitas’.14 Religious symbols and knowledge become

important to people only when they are able to use them, to make sense of their experiences,

which eventually shapes their social attitudes in the world in which they live.15 Having

gained this basic grasp of approaches to the relevance of symbolism within a socio-religious

milieu, it is also important to recognise the ambiguous nature of interpreting symbolism,

9 Ilkka Pyysiainen, How Religion Works: Towards a New Cognitive Science of Religion, Boston: Brill, 2003, p38f, even though I don’t fully subscribe to the view of cognitive approach to the study of religion, I feel it is important to understand the process of meaning construction of the religious symbols. 10 Edmund Leach, Culture and Communication, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976, p49 11 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, pp127-130 12 Ibid., p95 13 Ibid., p167 14 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields and Metaphors, London: Cornell university press, 1978, p55&236 15 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Small Places, Large Issues, London: Pluto Press, 2001, p226 and Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p160

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because of the constantly changing social world of human communities.16 Hence, activities of

human communities within religious arenas and activities due to their religious affiliation,

both have to be observed for a comprehensive perspective on the utilisation of religion. With

this background let us observe some aspects of the Paraiyar Christian community of

Thulasigramam, which might shed light on the aspect of human communities utilising

religious symbols and socially subversive actions for negotiating their social space.

Paraiyar Christians and the Utilisation of Religious Symbols

Thulasigramam has been the place of various social and religious conflicts in the past.

Continuing tensions of the caste conflicts between Reddyars and Paraiyars compounded with

the religious conflicts between Hindu and Christian Paraiyars form the complex environment

within which the following observations were made. Historically, in Thulasigramam, these

conflicts were rooted in the community but were also sometimes instigated by people from

outside the village with vested interest. Five observations give the basis for further discussion

regarding the utilisation of religious symbolism and ritual performance for contesting their

social status.

The Cross on the Hilltop

The cross on the hilltop near the Paraiyar Cheri (colony) has an interesting and

noteworthy history. Near the central part of Thulasigramam there is a hillock on top of which

is a small temple dedicated to the Hindu lord Murugan. Interestingly, there is another slightly

higher hillock on the southern edge of the village, close to the Paraiyar Cheri. Some of the

Paraiyar Christians came up with the idea to use the higher hill near the Cheri for prayer and

meditation. One day they went up the hill, cleared some of the bushes and placed a cross

there and, since then, they have consciously claimed it as a Punitha Idum (sacred place) for

16 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields and Metaphors, p24 and also Dan Sperber demonstrates in his book the process of transforming old representations, symbols and rituals in to new life by changing actors and universe, Rethinking Symbolism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975

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the Christian community. Observing this development, the Hindu Reddyars objected and

warned some of the Paraiyar Christians to remove the Christian symbol or face dire

consequences. When they felt that the Paraiyar Christians were not responding to their

threats, they instructed the Hindu Paraiyars to place a Trisula (trident) symbolising the Hindu

god Shiva on the same hill near the cross, thereby directly challenging the Paraiyar

Christians. Considering this to be an insult the Paraiyar Christians gathered together and

decided to rename the contested hill as Oliva Malai (after the biblical Mt. Olive) and built an

altar with a large cross. Moreover they fenced off access to the hill path and effectively

claiming the hill as the private property of the Christian community. The Paraiyar Christians

have made a formal legal application to their elected politician through their local church to

declare the site as a Christian sacred space and include it under church maintenance.

Some Paraiyar Christians claim that their prayers have been answered after making a

pilgrimage to the hill top and hoisting a flag with cross on it. As mentioned earlier, Esther, a

devout Paraiyar Christian woman revealed, that when she was ‘barren’ and despised by the

community for not bearing a child, she used to go to this particular hilltop cross and pray for

long hours. One night Jesus appeared to her in a dream as a child, and, within a week, she

found herself to be pregnant. This news spread around the community, and the hilltop cross

began to gain importance within the Christian community and the village. Based upon such

experiences a myth around the hilltop cross began to take shape and, consequently, the Hindu

Paraiyars also became interested in it, hoping that they also would receive the benefits of

praying to Yesusami near the hilltop cross.17

Apart from the perceived miraculous powers of the cross, the Oliva Malai is actually

far higher than the hill where the Lord Murugan temple is located. This is perceptible through

a comment made by a Paraiyar Christian youth, ‘our cross is higher than their Murugan’, and

17 Reddyars still consider the land on which the cross is situated as an illegal occupation and continue to make efforts to clear it.

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provides insight into the power of symbols. The cross is effectively used as a tool to literally

claim ‘higher ground’ above the gods of their oppressors, the Reddyars and the Hindu

Paraiyars, in a context where the Christian Paraiyars are poorly treated. The hilltop cross

becomes a means to contest their inferior status, while claiming the denied higher status

through their religious affiliation. This is achieved by the popular notion that the vertical

manifestation of one’s religious affiliation determines the rank order of a community. The

location of the cross on the hill top, a favoured place of Hindu deities, thus communicates the

message of contestation by the Paraiyar Christians effectively, literally claiming higher status

for them.

The Holy Bible: the Magic Book?

The Bible is often considered to be a Parisutha, a holy book, and is treated with great

reverence within the predominately illiterate Paraiyar Christian community. It is also believed

to contain enormous powers within it, which can be used for personal as well as communal

benefits. During my fieldwork, Chandra, an elderly lady in the Paraiyar Christian community

and wife of an ex-catechist, disclosed her belief in the miraculous power of Yesusami (Tamil

word for Jesus), made possible through the Bible, which she believes contains ‘His’ Power.

One evening, visibly upset, she went to the church and prayed with her Bible in hand;

afterwards she returned home and entered her backyard. I was surprised to see her place the

Bible on the heads of some of her sheep and pray for healing. Upon enquiry, she explained

that she was praying for her sick sheep, which were affected with some contagious infection.

After a few of them had died, she decided to use the power that she saw latent in the Bible to

protect the sheep. She firmly believed that the Bible had the power to heal the sheep if she

placed it upon them while praying to Yesusami. Chandra also added that if the sheep die, her

only source of living would be gone. She recollected that from her previous experiences

when she and her husband would visit sick people, they would pray with the Bible by placing

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it upon the ill person and frequently be healed. For Chandra, the Bible contains magical

healing power within itself that is released when she prayed to Yesusami with faith. She also

confided that she often keeps the Bible under her pillow while going to sleep to avoid bad

dreams by keeping evil spirits from reaching or harming her. She admitted to this practice for

more than five decades and always finds it to be beneficial.

Chandra is not alone in this type of practice: many other women and men from the

Paraiyar Christian community share this belief in the power of the Bible. Many in the

community use the Bible for various reasons apart from reading and learning scripture,

primarily because most cannot read. In some houses it is kept in an elevated place along with

portraits of Yesusami and sometimes even with other deities, decorations and candles, almost

doing a semi-poojai (worship) to it. The Bible as a religious object becomes an almost magic

tool used to prevent misfortune in personal, social, and economic life. Chandra infuses new

meaning into the use and role of the Bible in her life primarily through her faith and past

experience. But this process does not stop there as it permeates into other aspects of her life

as well. It can be observed that religious objects, like the cross and Bible, can take on new

roles as ascribed by the users other than what they were originally intended for, as we just

saw in the case of the Christian Paraiyar community in Thulasigramam effectively giving a

new meaning for the above mentioned religious objects.

Portraits of Yesusami and the Virgin Mary

Yesusami and the Virgin Mary are the predominant portraits present in most

households of Paraiyar Christians in Thulasigramam. Interestingly, there is not a single

portrait of either figure within the church building because the Ubadesi (catechist) believes

that Christians should not worship idols (i.e. portraits), which is also the official stance of the

local church. Contrary to this view, many of the Christians in the community worship and

venerate pictures of Yesusami and Virgin Mary within their homes. Peter, a young member

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of the Paraiyar Christian community, said that he spends five minutes every morning in front

of Yesusami’s portrait before leaving for work. He believes that this ‘prayerful act’ provides

him safety, strength, and peace every day. In another instance, Nathan, the local guardian of

the church and respected member of the community, decided to farm rabbits with the help of

a loan arranged by his employer. Prior to receiving the baby rabbits, he prepared a shed for

the rabbit cages, inside of which he hung a portrait of Yesusami. When asked, Nathan replied

that by placing the picture of Yesusami with the rabbits, he ensures their protection and well

being, as well as making sure that his business venture would be prosperous. He further

added that the portrait of Yesusami is equivalent to the real presence of Yesusami among the

rabbits, and promises good safety and better profit.

This practice is widely prevalent among the Paraiyar Christians in Thulasigramam.

Yacobu, who work in the poultry farm of a Reddyar, keeps a portrait of Yesusami in his tent

while working. He believes that this picture helps him work well and consequently to earn a

good reputation from his manager. Rani, an elderly widow in the Christian community who

upkeeps the church premises for free, also offers a good insight into the way images of divine

are perceived in the community. She has portraits of Yesusami, Virgin Mary and a deceased

former bishop hung on a wall of her house. These portraits occupy a special place in her wall

and are adorned with decorations, much like the Hindu shrines. One day she had food items

placed in front of the portraits and when I asked, she explained that she continues to make the

same dishes the bishop liked when used to visit the village when he was alive. Her gesture of

hospitality was extended to the portraits of Yesusami and the Virgin Mary next to the

deceased bishop, hoping that they would consume it, and in return bless her. In the past she

claimed to see the foods disappear. Although some of the community members claim that she

is mentally unstable, since she believes in the plausibility of her experiences.

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The visual interaction with the divine portraits and extraction of hope from them

among Thulasigramam Paraiyar Christians provides useful insights into the relationship

between divine images and devotes. Moreover, these images have practical implications upon

the lives of Paraiyar Christians. As David Morgan explains through extensive research on the

usage of divine images in the Indian subcontinent, the devotees and viewers of divine

portraits and images enter into a relationship, a ‘covenant’ with the image and use it to

interpret for socio-spiritual empowerment.18 As explained earlier the Paraiyar Christian

community amply demonstrated that images and portraits of the divine assume real presence

through their psycho-social interpretations finding functional value in their lives.

The Palm Sunday Procession

Among the most awaited Christian religious observances in Thulasigramam, the Palm

Sunday procession, which celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, is one of

the most significant highlights of the year. There is great excitement and preparation

concerning the carrying of palm leaves, singing Tamil lyrics and processing around the

streets of the Paraiyar Cheri. Within the Christian community this religious spectacle is an

important demonstration of Christian Paraiyar religious affiliation, as well as a vehicle to

(loudly) proclaim their changed status, from that of religiously impure Hindu Paraiyar to

‘Christians’. On the previous day, the youth went around the Paraiyar Christian houses and

instructed them all to participate in the Palm Sunday procession. The procession started from

the church, continued through the main street and into the street populated by Hindu

Paraiyars, where they gathered right in front of the Hindu temple boisterously singing

Christian lyrics.

It was interesting to observe and analyse the multiple dynamics involved in this event.

At one level, they displayed their unity as Paraiyar Christians and the new religiously

18 David Morgan, The Sacred Gaze, London: University of California Press, 2005, p75ff

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‘acceptable’ status they had achieved by becoming Christians. On another level, they

demonstrated their proximity to the core deity of their faith, which was denied to them as

Hindus. Because ‘high caste’ Hindus see Paraiyars as ritually polluting and thus unable to

enter the Hindu temple or access the deity. As Hindus the Paraiyars were prohibited from

touching Hindu iconography or high caste Hindus, and therefore took particular pride in

processing around Thulasigramam with Christian symbols. Even though many of them

actually did not know the religious history of Palm Sunday, they nevertheless attached value

to the event; since that was the only time they were able to go around the village publicly as

‘Christians’. The Palm Sunday procession by the Paraiyar Christians clearly exemplifies how

a ritual practice takes on new connotations pertaining to the context in which it is performed.

The Palm Sunday procession creates a platform for the Christian community to come

together inspite of their inner conflicts and differences, while providing a united stance to

contest their previously religiously impure status by showcasing their proximity to the

Christian deity. This religious performance is loaded with socio-religious meaning for the

struggle against dominance and status change within the stronghold of the caste structure.19

As Victor Turner observed, religious ritual performances with localised contexts create a

particular meaning and can instigate and facilitate new ‘communitas’, 20 within

Thulasigramam, Paraiyar Christian community were able to achieve a new status as well as

breaking through the religious untouchability of their past.

Christian Festivals

In Thulasigramam there is increasing interest among the Christians to celebrate and

conduct major Christian festivals like Christmas, New Year and Easter in a grand manner

19 Timothy Jenkins describes a similar procession, but in a bigger scale at Kingswood White Walk, which provides space for various groups to express not just their religious identity but also socially and territorially significant messages. Religion in English Everyday Life: an Ethnographic Approach, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999, p100ff 20 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields and Metaphors, p236

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overshadowing the Hindu festivals predominantly organised by the Reddyars. The Paraiyar

Christians take extreme measures to fundraise and organise for those festivals. During

Christmas, New Year and Easter festivals, they arranged for expensive decorative lights for

the church building and loud stereo systems so that the whole village could see and hear their

celebrations. Many of the Paraiyar Christians were very clear that their festivals should be

better and grander than the Hindu temple festivals organised by the Reddyars. Taking a cue

from the Hindu temple festivals, the Christians have decided to organise a large meal for the

whole Thulasigramam village during Christmas and Easter. It needs to be mentioned that the

sole purpose among the Christians to celebrate Christmas and Easter was to outshine the

Hindu Reddyars festivals, that being perhaps more crucial than actually celebrating the birth

and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But one cannot miss the competitiveness shown by the

Paraiyar Christians to organise grand religious festivals, thus exemplifying their strategy to

claim a position that was denied to them in Hindu religious practices.21 Paraiyars, according

to the village restrictions in Thulasigramam, could only be spectators and never the

organisers of any religious festivals, so, as Christians, they can now organise and celebrate

Christmas and Easter, thus have an added gusto and gaiety, which was denied to them before.

It also sends a message to the Reddyars that as Christians, even as Paraiyar Christians, they

cannot be ignored in the village. This process demonstrates their capacity to act as a coherent

and resisting group.

Another example is the annual harvest festival at Annaicuttu, a village near

Thulasigramam, where many of the rural Christian communities from the northern part of the

Vellore district gather to celebrate and give thanks to Yesusami for the harvest. At first

instance it could be mistaken for a Hindu temple festival, because the church is built like a

traditional Hindu temple and people come with offerings such as chickens, cattle, agricultural

21 The competitiveness among Christians in organising grand festivals is not an isolated occurrence but can be seen around the world and is true for other religious traditions.

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products and so on. Many believers even offer their hair for the blessings they received from

Yesusami as a result of their prayers offered during the previous year. This practice is

characteristic of popular local religious practices that are widely followed among Hindus as

well. Christians, predominantly Paraiyars, plan and organise this festival on a grand scale,

which thereby resembles and even over-shadows other Hindu temple festivals in that area.

Such festivals are becoming popular within the diocese and there are now more than

ten different festivals organised in different parts of the region annually. The phenomenal

growth and popularity of these harvest festivals in the rural areas have caused serious

tensions between Paraiyar Christians and local high caste land lords. Because, the Paraiyar

Christians have utilised the harvest festivals to mobilise both local and neighbouring Paraiyar

Christian communities allowing them to celebrate in a grand style. It can also be observed

that there are definite political undertones to such festive gatherings, which very often angers

the local land owning communities.

Subversive Social Actions

Subversion of the accepted social behaviour and norms has its contribution to the

constructions of religious identity. Subversive elements have the potential to create value for

the oppressed communities. Stealing22 from the farms and fields owned by the Reddyars is

not surprisingly considered to be a punishable action by the landlords in Thulasigramam. But

on many occasions members from the Paraiyar Christian community narrated their brave

adventures in Reddyar lands stealing tender coconuts, mangoes, bananas and rice, just to

mention a few items. Simon and Dass, two Paraiyar Christian youths, were famous for their

exploits, especially during the nights. Comically, their adventures have become a regular

feature of gossip in the village, but whenever they gather, they would plan to visit one of the

farms and steal a substantial amount of eatable fruits. After stealing the produce, they often

22 Stealing has to be qualified here; it is not an action intended to inflict misery upon the landlords but to express their right to a share of the crops.

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stay and consume what they took in the actual scene of the crime so to speak, bragging about

their bravery to their friends. They do not perceive stealing as a serious unethical problem,

but rather their right to take a few of those ‘fenced’ produces for which their parents have

worked so hard. Such night time activities of the Paraiyar Christian youth have prompted the

landlords to electrify the fences surrounding their lands in order to protect their crops; but the

youth still find some way to continue stealing. This interaction is actually a manifestation of

the tension that exists between the land owning Reddyar community and the impoverished

Paraiyar community. Even though the elders of both communities would agree that such

actions should not be permitted and punished when they do happen, the youths from the

Paraiyar Christian community continue to steal with the tacit support from their community.

It is a subversive method of negotiating their right into the plenty which was ‘fenced off’

from them.

Another example of similar mischievous behaviour is the digging up of the road in

random places by the Paraiyar Christian youths. This became a source of expressing their

anger and disagreement against the Reddyars. The Government had laid a tarmac road in the

village in the area primarily used by the Reddyars and the occasional public transport

vehicles. The road runs through the Paraiyar settlement, but most users are Reddyars, who

own vehicles and drive too fast in the Paraiyar Cherie, killing couple of kids and injuring

several women. Because of these threats the Paraiyar community demanded that a speed

breaker should be put on the road so that the speeding vehicles are forcibly slowed down:

their requests fell on deaf ears. One night, some of the Paraiyar Christian youths gathered and

dug deep potholes in some parts of the road near their houses, thereby forcing the vehicles to

go slowly. Since their homes were directly adjacent to the road, they felt that it was the

rightful expression of their anger in the face of failure to respond to their concerns. Paraiyar

Christians argue that carrying out punishable action such as stealing and digging up the road

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to protest against gross negligence and violation of their rights was permissible within their

community ethos (but the local Christian priest did not approve of it!).

Other subversive activities include desecrating Hindu religious sites by urinating or

defecating on or near the idols in temple and holy anthills (puthuu) which are worshiped by

the Reddyars.23 A few years ago within the Paraiyar Christian community Prabu and his

friends went to the temple in the village entrance and urinated and defecated on some of the

Hindu idols during the night, in response to their prohibition to participate in some of the

village festivals conducted by the Reddyars. Nobody talks about it publicly, as the Reddyars

are still not aware of the ‘culprits’.

This subversion is also expressed in their attitude and body posture. I also observed

that there were certain body languages used by the Paraiyar Christians which sometimes

might be misleading, especially in cases when it might seem as though they are very

respectful to the Reddyars, but in actuality they are doing quite the opposite. To illustrate this

point, when Paraiyar men and women sit on the veranda, and a Reddyar passes by, they are

traditionally compelled to stand and pay their mariyathai (respect) by taking off the thoundu

(a piece of cloth) over their shoulder. However nowadays after making the respectful gesture

they immediately use the thoundu to clean the veranda making it look as if they stood up just

to clean the place they were sitting, thereby giving a different meaning to a traditional

practice. What goes on during such actions is that some in the Paraiyar community

demonstrate and express their protest against their subordination by subverting the accepted

social norms in order to undermine the authority of the Reddyars. These subversive actions

not only demonstrate the anger latent within the Paraiyar Christian community but also

challenge and contest the boundaries that are laid out in principle and in practice among the

23 Lynne S. Crumrine explains ‘defecation’ of a religious artefact as a potent symbolic action to express the community’s feelings. Mayo Santos: A Paradigmatic Analysis of a Sacred Symbol in Robert F Spencer, ed. Forms of Symbolic Action, London: American Ethnological Society, 1969, pp134-150. Also see Photograph 16 in the Appendix.

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different caste communities in the village. What is intriguing is that these subversive actions

were presented to me as happening only among the Christian community, since Hindu

Paraiyars are religiously affiliated with Reddyars, they would not attempt such actions. Hence

Christian Paraiyars enjoy the freedom to express their anger in such visible actions.

It seems that these subversive actions have become part of their daily existence and

happen almost naturally without any planning, and have almost become a new custom. It may

be due to the fact that they have to constantly fight for their survival in an exploitative social

setting that subversion becomes the means to negotiate their place and space within such an

exploitative setting. On the other hand it could also be due to their functional understanding

of religion, which finds its expression in Christianity.

Religion in Practice

To understand the use of religion in the Paraiyar Christian community, the experience

of Ramu is helpful. As mentioned earlier Ramu is a widower and a chronic tuberculosis

patient. He came regularly to the church in the hope that his sickness would be cured.

However it was his approach to prayer that I found interesting to observe. He said ‘if I ask

God for healing, it has to happen today; otherwise I’ll look at other options!’ Although there

was no significant change in his health condition, he still hoped that he would be healed one

day. After worshiping for couple of months in the CSI church, he went to the Pentecostal

prayer fellowship in the neighbouring village to be prayed for. He did not stop there; he even

went to consult a local healer for healing and eventually admitting himself into a government

hospital.

A very functional understating of religion is to be found in Ramu and other Paraiyar

Christians perception of religion. It may be termed as ‘a desperate act’ by the local church

leader and couple of other Christians, but the fact was that Ramu’s expectation of Yesusami

was that he would be healed, a hope that provided him some ounce of strength. If he did not

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find healing in the local church, he was determined enough to look for it in other possible

places. This perception of religion is prevalent among the Paraiyar Christians of

Thulasigramam and to a large extent determines their relationship with the church and

religion in general. To further illustrate this point is the example of Jebanesan, who said, “I

go to God only if there is some need”. Jebanesan is a known alcoholic in the village, who

works with some of the illicit liquor brewers. Although he was ridiculed in the Paraiyar

Christian community for his life style and actions, his opinion further bolsters some Paraiyar

Christians approach to God. The Paraiyars by default are an impoverished community. It was

not surprising at all to observe that their predominant mode of relating with God is through

the fulfilment of their tangible and material needs in life.

‘If I come to church, who will feed my kids and family?’ was a profound question

asked by Saroja, a middle aged mother of two children in the Paraiyar Christian community,

when asked about her absence in the church on a particular Sunday. Saroja’s question

illustrates the notion that many of the Paraiyars decisions were made in view of the present

moment and not the distant ‘future’. Such an answer in no way undermines her faith, but only

demonstrates her practical approach to life. Her first priority was to provide for her family’s

daily needs and only when they were met did she attend to the practice of her faith. Within

the context of growing difficulty in getting a days work, Beulah makes the choice to work

and earn a living rather than sitting in the church, singing and praying. She added to her

explanation ‘Yesusami would understand my situation; he (Yesusami) will not get angry if I

don’t go to church once in a while’. It is important to grasp her religious perception and the

priorities in her life. Although she felt sorry for not going to church, she was more concerned

to provide a meal for the family through her work. She made a choice for her and her families

material and immediate needs over her spiritual needs. This experience was shared by

Paraiyars across the Christian community. There was even one Sunday when the service had

18

to be cancelled since nobody turned up for the service as most had gone to the paddy fields

for harvesting. The popular perception among Hindus in Thulasigramam was that Paraiyars

are not faithful enough in their religious practice and do not fear God, but on the contrary, the

Paraiyar Christians pursue pressing practical life issues with the hope that Yesusami will

understand their absence in the church service on a Sunday morning.

Deva, a Christian elder in Thulasigramam, makes this candid statement, ‘When I pray

to Yesusami, he gets me the pension and the ‘rum’ bottles from the military canteen and I am

thankful to him for that’, which encapsulates the way he perceived and understood God.

Primarily Yesusami was realised through daily life experiences. I would argue that the

Paraiyar Christians have a very personal, participatory and real dimension to the conception

of their faith. This statement needs to be located within a pietistic missionary understanding

of Christianity, in which alcohol consumption was considered to be sinful and religiously

prohibited. Deva’s perception of Yesusami not only transcends the narrow confines of

denominational Christianity, but also provides a fascinating and functional dimension of

Yesusami attributed through the experiences Paraiyar Christians. Most importantly God is

conceived to be among the Paraiyar Christians and not constrained in an isolated centre, thus

giving them the freedom to interact with that divine presence. When God fulfils their needs,

he gains importance and currency in the Paraiyar Christian community gaining their

allegiance and faith. When God fails to help immediately he is chastised but not abandoned.

It is interesting to note that according to the local Christian priest there is hardly anything

‘Christian’ about this conception of Yesusami. The official view would be that the popular

perceptions among rural Christians are superstitious beliefs and product of ignorance, which

should not be taken seriously!

19

Social Negotiation and Change

Religions are not finished products: they constantly hand themselves over to their adherents. They are susceptible to continuously being crafted into meaning-giving and meaning-making symbolic dwelling places.24

This observation by Sathianathan Clarke largely explains the experiences of Paraiyar

Christians in Thulasigramam. The claiming of new status through the location and height of

the hilltop cross, the magical power of the Bible to transform personal and social problems,

the hope provided by the portraits of Yesusami and the Virgin Mary, the creation of a new

‘communitas’ through the solidarity expressed in the Palm Sunday procession, the

celebrations during the Christians festivals, and deliberate subversive acts all happen within

the socio-religious domain, but are infused with different meanings by the actors themselves.

The above mentioned observations contribute to the continuing struggles of Paraiyar

Christians to contest their inferior status as ‘outcastes’ living in the cherie and in the process

gain a new status within a subordinated social reality. Religion becomes one of the major

means of negotiating their identity and status within the caste dominated village community.

As observed earlier these religious symbols and practices along with the freedom to exercise

their subversive actions are given new meaning for a specific purpose of personal and social

transformation. These are also utilised to negotiate and redraw the existing cognitive and

social boundaries, as well as claiming higher status in the midst of caste oppression and

socio-religious untouchability. The process of receiving religious symbols and practicing

rituals are used to attain certain goals, while providing a sense of religious functioning as an

agency for change.25 As explained earlier, within the context of alienation from necessary

resources and imposed subordination by the caste system, Paraiyar Christians in

24 Sathianathan Clarke, Transformations of Caste and Tribe in Rowena Robinson and Sathianathan Clarke, ed. Religious Conversions in India, ed. Religious Conversions in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, p217 25 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, p116ff

20

Thulasigramam do feel that they have the potential and power to change their lives with the

religious resources provided to them within Christianity.

Many of the practices and performances analysed in this brief chapter are produced to

unsettle and contest hierarchies, thus providing new space for existence. They are innovative

strategies for subverting social structures and negotiating identities. Victor Turner observes

that due to the need to escape from the structural compulsions, people might adopt certain

cultural expression which may be religious, but also heavily ritualised.26 Having said that,

such ritual performances might be in direct conflict to governing structures and even question

their authority, as Turner hints at this process in which the ‘inferiors symbolically usurp’

certain practises to subvert the structure to realize the communitas.27 In the light of Turner’s

understanding of ritual performance it can be said that these acts of the Paraiyar Christians

are concrete protests against the existing dominant social structure and not just conservative

sublimation to the status quo. As Geertz argues certain actions cannot be just treated as

epiphenomenon and as spectacles,28 because performances are antagonising, decentring and

subverting processes.29 Thus, it can be argued that the hilltop Cross, the Bible, the Palm

Sunday procession, and the Christian festival celebrations, are visible representations of the

less visible world. Along with other discursive and subversive processes, these become

strategic tools of identification, negotiation, and transformation across socio-economic and

religious fields, providing new space for the Paraiyar Christians of Thulasigramam, both

individually and socially.

26 Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields and Metaphors, p260 27 Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti Structure, Ithaca: Cornell university Press, 1969, p184, see also Bobby C Alexander, Victor Turner Revisited, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1991, pp46&66 28 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, p113 see also Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p160 29 Homi K Bhabha, The Location of Culture, New York: Routledge, 1994, pp146-49 and also Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, p17

21

Symbols and ritual performances have the power to break human boundaries and

create a new sense of community. The impact of the less visible world and its visible

representations, i.e. caste, has significant impact on the lives of people. The observations

presented above demonstrate how local religious experiences colour and problematize

generalized discussions of Christianity. Caste and religious discrimination is first locally

based and determined, making theories of globalization all the more remote. The way

Paraiyar Christians have utilised their affiliation to Christianity as a means for finding their

space in the religious arena goes to show the local rootedness of Christianity, despite being a

‘World Religion’. The dynamics of religious belonging is expressed in claiming new ground,

and a new path, quite literally, towards subverting social hierarchy. This process results in the

formation of a new identity, enabling them to become competitive amongst their religious

neighbours. The lives and experiences of these Paraiyar Christians and there by Dalit

Christians, shows that the local religious context cannot be ignored, since it is such local

determinants that significantly shape larger global processes.

Anderson H M Jeremiah earned his doctorate from the Centre for the Study of World

Christianity, University of Edinburgh. His research interests include the anthropological

enquiry into the complex lives and identity formation of Dalit Christians in India. He also

continues to explore the role of Christianity in forging new identities and theologies in the

context of marginality.

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